1. Technical Field
The technology presented herein relates to the field of printing and, more specifically, to a system and method therefor that directs radiant energy and air flow in and out of a printing system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Application of ink on a print medium can be accomplished using a variety of instruments, both manual and automated. In all cases in a process of printing a print medium, it is important to dry the surface to which the ink is applied prior to allowing the print medium to be stacked or otherwise touched. Methods known in the printing arts include use of blown air, whether heated or not, with or without radiant energy.
With respect to automated printing technology, two common printing methods involve lithography, whether offset or direct, and ink jet printing. In either case, drying the freshly printed surface in real time is a key consideration in machine design for optimizing speed. Although pre-cut print medium can be used in a high speed printing press, generally one can achieve greater speed and other economies using a continuous web of print medium. Either way, a printing system can include an airflow that passes resistor-based heating elements, or an airflow coupled to microwave or infrared radiation directed at a freshly printed medium, or, simply, an airflow of sufficient capacity that moisture or other evolving gases associated with the ink will exit the medium path of a print press in a timely fashion. However, such drying systems as used in the printing art are incorporated into a printing system without consideration for servicing the components thereof in the absence of removal of the print medium.
Another challenge of drying systems included with a printing press relates to the heat flow itself. With the advent of high speed printing methodologies and machines, the impact of removal of the spent air after the act of drying the print medium has become increasingly important with rising energy costs. Simply put, if the source of the air that is employed in the drying system of a print press is the building in which the print press is housed, and the spent air is exhausted from the building, then one impact will be a net loss of heat in a cold-ambient outside environment, as in winter, or a net gain of heat in a heat-ambient outside environment, as in summer. On the other hand, using outside air in winter will also increase energy costs owing to the need to warm such air to increase its capacity to remove evolving matter from the print medium.